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Re: meaning of span

Sometimes the word span is used to talk about a bridge. A bridge goes across an open space and connects the two "ends" together.
In the example, the phrase attention span means the time a person keeps a topic in his/her mind and connects that topic to other related parts of the topic.
For example, a young child has a short attention span. She plays with one toy for 20 - 30 seconds, and then she plays with a different toy. An eight-year-old child might sit at her desk and build something from Lego blocks and continue for 20 minutes, even if a friend says "come and play with me." (a distraction)
The phrase uses Economists (plural), so the speaker uses attention spans (Each Economist has an attention span.) This short quotation probably has an emphasis that is in the conversation. It could be that the speaker is being positive or complaining or being critical, or even sarcastic, and I can imagine other possibilities.